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Lefferts Playground honors an influential Dutch family that resided in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush. The Lefferts traced their roots to Dutch colonist Pieter Janse Hagewout (1650-1704), a farmer and shoemaker who emigrated from Holland with his family aboard de Bonte Koe (The Spotted Cow) in 1660. In 1776, 31,000 British soldiers invaded Long Island during the Revolutionary War. Several Read more...
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In 1906, former New York State Senator William H. Reynolds founded the Laurelton Land Company and purchased a 300-acre tract located east of the Atlantic and Montauk division junction of the Long Island Railroad. In 1917 Reynolds moved the Laurelton Land Company to begin development in Long Beach, Long Island. In order to ensure transportation for the development, the company Read more...
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The namesake of this small park is William H. Latham (1903-1987), Consulting Park Engineer under Robert Moses (1889-1981) and one of the few aides with whom Moses would directly interact. For forty years, Robert Moses served as the master builder of the City of New York. He played a primary role in the development of its parks, transportation, and housing. Read more...
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This unconventional park was created in 1958 when the Port Authority surrendered nine parcels of land to the City for park purposes. They are situated in lots that follow the flight path to the airport, stretching from 78th Street and 25th Avenue to the Grand Central Parkway. Their placement is mandated by Federal Aviation Administration regulations, which require a swath Read more...
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This park honors the memory of Lieutenant Frank McConnell (1896-1918), the first Richmond Hill resident killed in World War I. A star member of the Princeton crew team (Class of 1919), McConnell lost his life on July 26, 1918, in northern France during the Second Battle of the Marne. This battle marked a turning point of the war. The Germans Read more...
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This center honors jazz musician Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong (1900-1971). He lived in a small Corona home with his wife from 1943 until his death in 1971. Louis Armstrong’s musical career had quite an unusual start: an arrest. Eleven-year-old Armstrong fired a pistol into the sky on New Years Eve, 1912, and a judge subsequently placed him in the Colored Waif’s Read more...
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Libra is one of the twelve constellations of the zodiac, lying south of the celestial equator between Scorpio and Virgo. Libra is the Latin term for “balance,” and the constellation is named such because ancient astronomers believed the stars formed the outline of a woman holding a scale. The Roman interpretation is often linked with a concept of equity, since Read more...
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This park, located between 39th Road and 39th Drive and running from 52nd to 54th Streets in Queens, is named for Louis Windmuller (1835-1913), a civic leader and businessman who summered on this Woodside hill until his death in 1913. Born in Westphalia, Germany in 1835, Louis Windmuller emigrated to the United States at the age of 18. He began Read more...
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This property takes its name from the nearby mill that ground wheat and corn for the residents of north Queens. The mill had three names over the course of its existence: Kip’s Mill, Fish’s Mill, and finally Jackson’s Mill. A large water wheel that harnessed the flow of the adjacent pond provided power to the mill. The road crossing the Read more...
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Joseph Austin (1904-1998) was a longtime youth league coach and active member of this Jamaica, Queens community. Austin was born on March 19, 1904 at his family home on Chichester Avenue (now 95th Avenue) and Guilford Boulevard (now Jamaica Boulevard). Austin later attended Public School 62 and the old Jamaica High School, located on Hillside Avenue and 162nd Street. As Read more...
